Gluten-Free Items

Gluten-Free Items

These wheat-free products may be hot, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re better for you, says Karen Ansel MS, RDN, the co-author of The Calendar Diet: A Month by Month Guide to Losing Weight While Living Your Life. Since gluten adds texture and taste to many foods, manufacturers often have to replace it with sugar, fat, and starch, which often pack more calories than the original gluten version would. If you want to limit your intake, you’re better off choosing naturally gluten-free whole foods like buckwheat, veggies, and sweat potatoes, says nutrition therapist and registered dietitian Limor Baum.

Wraps

Wraps

For those cutting carbs, these flat offenders seem like the perfect sandwich solution — but not so fast. Not only do most wraps contain over 300 calories before adding the fillings (you could have three slices of bread for less than that!), but they’re large — most restaurants service 12” ones — making it easier to stuff them with more ingredients than you would put in a classic sandwich. Registered dietitian Amy Shapiro also points out that it is easy to remove the top slice of bread and eat a sandwich open-faced, but who rips off part of a wrap? “Even spinach, tomato, and whole-wheat wraps rarely contain any whole grains or vegetables, though they do contain fat,” she says.